TWENTY TWO

Kuroko was shut down as Takumi was expecting. With Takao constantly on his ass, the boy was unable to pass like usual and made mistakes. Slowly, Shutoku gained a small lead and were sustaining it.

With Kuroko unable to take action, Kagami found it more difficult to score and to add to his pressure, he had Midorima marking him and Midorima's defence was sturdy. The first quarter came to an end with Shutoku taking an 8 point lead.

The players arrived back at the bench and Kuroko sat down with a sullen look. But he didn't let his emotions overwhelm him and he quickly started thinking up a plan to counter Takao's hawk eyes.

Takumi was planning to say some words of encouragement but when he saw the boy's serious face, he kept his mouth closed.

To be honest, Takumi himself wasn't sure what to say to help Kuroko. He figured it'd be best for Kuroko to overcome this obstacle himself. Technically speaking, Takumi could just waltz on out and dominate the game but there's no point in that because Seirin will lose valuable lessons if he were to do so.

For their outstanding loss last year, much like the Seiho game, Riko and the rest of the seniors needed to get through this game to overcome their trauma. If Takumi were to end the game himself, it would be like their efforts were for nothing.

So he waited.

The second quarter began and the team walked back on court. For now, their hope depended on Hyūga whose past Riko explained. After their devastating loss, Hyūga dedicated himself to being able to score under pressure. So Riko had faith in him.

With the second quarter in action, Izuki directed the passes towards Hyūga who shot two pointers and a few three pointers but unfortunately, it wasn't enough to catch up to Midorima's threes.

Kuroko still hadn't found a way to get past Takao so his presence on court was becoming a sort of liability. Kagami understood this and tried to cover for him by defending Midorima but it was made clear that the red-head still had far to go to be able to catch up to the miracle.

"This.....is not good." Riko bit her lip with a worried look. "The gaps getting wider. If it gets to double digits by the end of the first-half, it's going to be even harder to close it."

"Relax Riko-chan," Takumi said lazily.

She just rolled her eyes at the boy's indifferent attitude and kept her eyes trained on the court.

To Seirin's disappoint and frustration, Midorima overpowered them on the caught and led Shutoku to dominate the second-quarter. Kagami was practically helpless against him but there was this eerie feeling sprouting from the boy.

"Ara, is he awakening so soon?" Takumi mumbled to himself. He watched as the red-head's atmosphere shifted and saw his lips widen into a grin. The dude looked like a total villain character at this point.

"Something's not right." Riko muttered. "Kagami-kun....."

Suddenly, Midorima received the ball from Takao and he stood took his normal shooting form. He bent down and jumped up to release the ball but a sudden blur came from the right and he saw Kagami jumping up as well with his hands straight up trying to block the shot.

Unfortunately, the ball was already in the air and Kagami missed it by a few milliseconds. As usual, it was a flawless shot by the green-head but surprisingly, Midorima wasn't pleased in the least.

'His jump was high.' Thought Midorima with a frown. He watched as Kagami walked back to his team. 'What is this bad feeling?'

"I see." Takumi suddenly said.

"See what?"

"N-nothing..."

Riko tilted her head but didn't bother asking more.

Takumi leaned on his palm with a serious look.

'It seems that my intervention has sped up Kagami's progress. Something tells me he'll unlock his full potential soon. However,' Takumi narrowed his eyes observing the red-head's body, 'his body isn't ready yet.'

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The scoreboard was now 35 to 43 with Shutoku in the lead.

It was coming closer to the end of the first-half and Seirin were struggling to close the gap. Kagami was still jumping for Midorima's shots and his jumps each time were getting higher and higher.

Midorima himself was getting more unsettled. His high-arc threes were invincible - at least that's what he used to think. This Seirin Ace however was coming closer to destroying that thought.

"You alright there Shin-chan? Don't tell me you're afraid of that number 10," joked Takao.

Midorima's eyes flashed as he glared dangerously at his partner, "Shut up Takao."

"So mean..."

The Shutoku captain shook his head at the two and looked to their coach.

'That bastard is so selfish, it irritates me to no end. If it weren't for coach's approval, I would've hit him for hogging the ball.'

Meanwhile, Seirin was going through a tiny crisis.

Kagami's attitude was getting shittier by the minute and his personality was reverting back to how it was when he first played for Seirin. Riko saw this and called for a time out.

"What the hell are you doing Kagami?!" she shouted.

Kagami just frowned and looked down, "We won't be able to stop them unless I do something. Just pass the ball to me."

"This brat-" Hyūga closed his fist ready to hit his head but was pulled away by Izuki.

"Only I can handle them so the ball needs to come to me. It's no use working together like this," continued Kagami.

'Oh no.' Takumi saw Kuroko's face morph into subtle anger as he raised his fist and gave a good punch to the red head.

""Kuroko!!""

Kagami was taken aback as he held his cheek and stood up menacingly. "Kuroko you bastard! The hell was that for?!"

He was about to grab the boys collar before Takumi intervened and blocked the smaller boy.

"Now now, how about you calm down,"

"Calm down?! He punched me!"

"For good reason though," Takumi replied. He glared at the red-head making everyone take a step back because it was so unlike Takumi to get angry.

"You're being selfish right now. Did you think this whole game revolves around you? To begin with, you're still not at a level where you can challenge a miracle and win. Secondly, basketball is a team sport meaning, you can depend on others. Make use of your teammates dumbass and stop thinking of yourself."

It was dead silent at the bench.

Kagami had taken a step back because he was admittedly scared at Takumi's glaring figure.

"Takumi-kun is right." Kuroko said suddenly. "I apologise for hitting you Kagami-kun but I was annoyed. You were starting to sound like 'them',"

'Them' was the generation of miracles and Kagami understood that.

Kagami was silent but his regret for his words were written all over his face. Riko sighed for the hundredth time today and massaged her temple.

"I swear you boys are more dramatic than girls. Now that that's all sorted, we need to discuss our plan."

""Hai,""

Unfortunately, they only had a minute or two to go over some things because of the argument before the buzzer sounded again.

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[A/N: Looks like 24 is the winner. Ngl, my OCD took a small hit cause of the number 14 but it's all good. Who cares right?

P.S. I just wanted to clarify that I made Takumi OP when he actually plays basketball. Any analysis or prediction he makes are based on what he recalls from the anime and is tweaked a bit. The reason for this is that my own knowledge on basketball is not enough for deep analysis and I depend a lot on the anime.]